In general, payment by an IC card (credit card, debit card, prepaid card, or traffic card) or recharging thereof can be processed only through a dedicated terminal. In case of online payment through the Internet, too, approval of payment can only be obtained by entering a card number and expiration date after purchasing goods at the corresponding shopping mall. A method utilizing a card, however, suffers from a problem that the card number can be exposed to others by, e.g., hacking because both card number and expiration date are entered at the time of payment for purchasing amount.
A system to resolve the aforementioned problem is disclosed in Korean Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-37185. The disclosed system enables prepaid transactions by embedding an RF chip for a non-contact type prepaid card with an identification number into a mobile communications terminal, with which occasional inquiry into the balance of the prepaid card and recharging thereof are carried out through the Internet. The disclosed system has several advantages such that since a non-contact type RF chip and antenna coil are embedded into a mobile communications terminal, there is no need to carry a card; inquiry into the balance information stored in the RF memory chip can be carried out through a Web server as well as a service terminal; and even recharging can also be fulfilled through a Web server instead of visiting a recharging station for a prepaid card at each and every occasion. However, since said RF chip dose not record monetary information except for the card identification number and actual monetary information according to the card identification number is stored in a Web server, a terminal at a membership store should make a reference to the Web server for the balance information, after which subsequent transactions are conducted; accordingly, the disclosed system is not well suited for the application to a traffic card of a bus or a subway where prompt transactions are demanded. Moreover, the disclosed system is no more than a mobile phone equipped with a pre-existing RF card so that interactions with a mobile phone are not implemented; therefore, a user can only carry out simple functions of making a reference to the Web server for the inquiry into the balance information and recharging by using the card identification number given at the time of subscription or purchase of the mobile phone.
In Korean Laid-Open Patent Application No. 1998-46928, an electronic purse card operating system is disclosed wherein, by embedding a combi-chip comprising a contact type and non-contact type smart card into a mobile device, functions of balance check, subtraction payment, and addition recharging are conducted by the contact type smart card, while balance check and subtraction payment are conducted by the non-contact type smart card. A recording area for electronic purse information of said two smart cards is synchronized so that identical electronic purse information is utilized, whereby convenience and promptness in usage and stability and security in data processing can be improved. However, the disclosed system also reveals a problem that since available money for payment is confined to the balance stored in the recording area of the combi-chip for electronic purse information, it can only be applied to a prepaid card; therefore, application areas are limited.